The Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board has expressed dismay at the attitude of the financial services sector including insurance industry for their near absence in all the Nigeria Content Consultative Forum and sectorial working groups activities.
The low rate attitude to programmes of the Board which the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Engr Simbi Kesiye Wabote said is not limited to Lagos, was a sad experience and the involvement of the financial sector is almost zero participation. Wabote, the guest speaker who was represented at the Oriental News 2023 Summit by Daziba Patrick Obah, Director, Corporate Services, said if the participation at the consultative forum is low how would the insurance industry effect the desired change when they are not participating to imbibe the philosophy of local content into the system.
He said the theme, “Building Local Content Synergy Between The Oil And Gas And The Insurance Sectors In Nigeria” was apt because the insurance industry is not hooking up to the philosophy of the Board. He said the Board is determined to bring the oil and gas sector to other sectors of the economy and foster collaboration and the establishment of legal, insurance and finance working groups in line with section 58 of NCDMB Act but the insurance group is not responding to sectoral working group invite.
Wabote said there are a huge opportunities in the oil and gas sector for the insurance market but the insurers are not preparing for the challenges which require them to build adequate capital and expertise to insure the risks in the oil and gas sector. He succinctly let the industry know that they have a lot of work to do to have the relevant capacity to insure oil risks.
Wabote said the response of the finance industry as a whole has not dampened the Board mandate to develop local content capabilities and monitor and enforce the provisions of the Nigeria oil and gas local content Act.
Another mandate the Board has created he disclosed, is the 10 year strategic roadmap from 2017-2027 with an ambition of growing local content to 70%.
